rouse
by dreamscapenymph
Summary: The first time he saw her, she was naked. fantasy au, rating changed from T to M. done for sasusaku month.
1. Chapter 1

The first time he saw her she was naked, her legs covered only by a sheer piece of fabric billowing around her, propelled by a mysterious wind of unknown source in the closed, windowless room that held only the temple elder, his assistant, and him.

She was also floating. Floating to the beat of the chant of the elder's steady voice that was stealthily weaving in and out of the particles of the air, engaging and disengaging them to create an invisible support for a perfect, flawless back that had once been marred by scars that will later reappear again to blight that pale expanse of skin.

When she was in the air she was perfect. Once her feet so much as touched the ground, though, the orange, puckered nipples would fade to a dull pink, two dark, angry, permanent marks would be visible in her neck again, and the bright, porcelain skin would once again evince the fact that it had once been whipped seventy times seven, for the years when she wasn't the revered oracle yet.

And he never found her as beautiful as when she came back down to him, and to earth—for the eyes that had once been dull and devoid of any emotion were bright of unshed tears, bitterness, and resigned acceptance beneath a mask of practiced blankness; and he thought that perhaps only he was privy to those emotions, for his masters never acknowledged them. She stood there after the chant and the ritual was over, silent as the night and as still as the statue, awaiting the dark cloak that would cover her body from his again, which was wrapped around her by the practiced yet leery hands of the hissing apprentice whom he was never really fond of.

They were both fifteen, and while her body looked glorious and mature to him, he felt all limbs and bones, as gangly as an awkward praying mantis who had never learned how to control his thin legs.

His unabashed staring finally caught her eye as the hood was finally secured over the riotous washed-red curls that adorned her head, and he thought he saw the hint of a slight smile.

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	2. Chapter 2

Master Elder had brought him to the temple a moon ago, from the filthy streets of a city that was two mountains and half a valley over. He had been loitering alone, as was his wont, waiting for the next victim from whom to filch a wallet, when sandaled feet came into his view. He was prepared to look up lazily with a defiant look in his eyes, like the character he oft adopted when old men noticed him—the usual reaction was a bark of amused laughter, a ruffle on his hair, a coin, and a speech goodbye of "Continue on with your life, my boy." By then he would have been fingering the rich man's wallet and hiding it beneath the folds of his dirty cloak. This time, though, it was an amused chuckle that came even before he could raise his head.

"Don't even think about it. Stand up, come with me."

When he finally raised his head he found out that the owner of the voice was a slight, lean man whose face was covered with a mask of swirls. Only one eye was visible, and it was made of glinting glass. Another man, a pale, longhaired slip of a thing with belligerent eyes was following him, holding what seemed like a satchel and umbrella. They were both staring at him, and in his abruptly numbed state of mind he followed—standing up and fell into step behind the pale man, the three of them in a short, single file.

For eight and ten days they walked, over the two mountains and along the half of the valley, before they reached the temple, where he was given a corner with a cot where he could sleep, and a slab of rock with which he could put his belongings, which only consisted of his dark, tattered cloak, a circular metal necklace of no worth, and the clothes on his back. He was given steady meals three times a day, and was given the task of cleaning the temple, helping Master Elder and Master Apprentice with their tasks, and carrying all of the heavy things—which included Master Elder's satchel. He obeyed, but not without his usual defiant air. He did all of these silently, but he never talked about himself, or his motives, or his past. Master Elder seemed satisfied, though. Master Apprentice was a different thing altogether—the looks he gave were increasing in hatred day by day.

It was just a fortnight later, during the Master Elder's tea before bed that he, ignoring the disapproving look on Master Apprentice's eye, announced, "You are now ready to witness the Awakening of the Oracle."

The next night he did, and aside from the Lady Oracle, he knew that he himself was awakened, too, the goose bumps stirring the skin in his arms and thighs and the back of his neck. And someplace else that evoked too human emotions in him—he never had so much difficulty suppressing himself than at that moment.

Had someone been alive to teach him what that feeling was, he would be able recognize the heady feeling as unadulterated lust.

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a/n: oh, and sasusaku forever and ever, the girl _is_ sakura, it's not karin. karin won't be showing her face here..i think.


	3. Chapter 3

He was to give her food. Every morning, as soon as the first rays of sunlight hit the world outside, he grabbed the rustic tray that bore the clay bowl. Inside was hot rice, and a smattering of food that he had gathered and cooked earlier, hours before dawn. Using both of his hands, he rolled the heavy stone that separated her privacy from the rest of the world aside. He picked up the tray that he had set on the floor, and once he was inside his nose was immediately assaulted by the various scents in the room—lavender, thyme, mint and rosemary. And cherries. The scent of cherries was always there, underlying the room, the thin slip of understated smell of maraschino cherries left dried out in the sun, its bitterness pervading the tongue much like the aftertaste of what Master Elder liked to drink during most nights.

"Lady," he called, and waited for her to rise from her prone position on the bed. He had called her _Mistress_ the first time, and a tingling chuckle had wafted through the air and into his ears, and in an instant he knew that he was to call her by any other name, but never _Mistress._

She rose, and he had to stop himself from searching for the sliver of flesh that he knew was bared by the cloak in that slight movement. She stood, and sat down in the stool in front of the lone table in the room, the dark, thick, heavy cloak with its single front clasp covering her body in full once more. Like all things when it came to the pink haired lady, he never wondered. He just knew that there was nothing else underneath that cloak. He set down the tray in the table, and sat down in the corner of the room—he could see from the tiny lilt in her mouth that she was glad with his choice for her breakfast—it was cherries and nuts swathed with oils he found in the kitchen. Once she rose and headed towards the lone window, he knew she was finished. He stood up and took the tray, bowed and left, once more rolling the stone shut, taking the light it bestowed on the large room with him.

The routine continued every day, and he wondered who fed her during the evenings, if she was indeed fed at that time.

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a/n: a big thank you to those who are reading this, especially to my lone reviewer, SasuSaku Forever and Ever. the next update'll be fast, as there doesn't seem to be much tension in this chapter. also, please review! :)


	4. Chapter 4

For three, four, five years he continued to bring her food, continued to watch the Awakening every week, and continued to suppress his own, the one stirring in his loins.

For years he just watched her hair grow longer, her body grow curvier, and her breasts grow fuller. He watched as her limbs grew longer, and had more shape.

He never touched her.

Until the eve of the waning moon. It was another Awakening, and curiously, Master Apprentice was nowhere to be seen. It was only Master Elder and him, the former chanting his unknown words. Sasuke couldn't keep his hands from tightly clutching the robe that he held in his hands—he had been instructed by Master Elder to pick it up from where the Lady had dropped it, before the platform where the ceremony was always held. And he knew that he was going to be Master Apprentice's substitute for this ceremony—he was to be the one to put her cloak around her. His hands were shaking at the thought, and he hid them underneath the folds of the massive cloak. The ceremony ended, and the lady's feet touched the ground soundlessly, and there was a split second hesitation before he walked forward, calm, his façade belying his inward state of nervousness, and wrapped the cloak around her. He didn't touch any inch of her skin, and he was thankful for that, for he knew not how he would react if he had touched her, but at the last moment, when he was fastening the lone clasp to its pair, a pale forefinger reached out from beneath the folds, placed it on his own forefinger that was struggling with the clasp, pushed, and clicked it together.

The touch was quick and fleeting but even after her hand withdrew into the cloak, he was still frozen.

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**[tbc]**


	5. Chapter 5

He couldn't sleep. He had witnessed the awakening for so many times, but there was something different about today—perhaps because it was the first time he touched her, perhaps because it was the first time he was this close to her, or perhaps it was her scent. Either way, he couldn't sleep.

And something was stirring in his body. He didn't know what, but there it was—patent and maybe inevitable. He was restless. If he didn't get up and walk it off, he knew that he wouldn't be getting a wink of sleep.

So he got up—didn't even bother to put on a shirt, for the air was warm. His aimless wandering led him to her door—the rock covering her room was slightly pushed to the side, enough for him to slip in. Before he knew it, he was inside.

He glanced around, but found the room empty; the sheets on the bed unused, the little stool seemingly untouched, the small window open.

His eyes caught a movement outside the window, and he walked towards it, his right hand resting on the rough edges of the sill. He found her dark cloak first, left abandoned in the grass a few feet from where she sat cross-legged, naked once more. His gaze lingered on the thatch of pink hair nestled between lean legs.

Her eyes were closed; her face and hands were raised to the waning moon, and he watched as her chapped lips muttered a string of unintelligible words. The hands held up were brought together soundlessly at the top of her head, and his eyes followed their path as they ran over her cheeks and neck, her breasts and stomach, her thighs. He stared as her torso slowly bent to the ground, her palms dragged slowly over the grass as far over her head as her body could allow, then gradually lifted once more to the waning moon. Two times, three times, this was repeated, until her hands stopped at her thighs.

He watched, enraptured, as her body rocked backwards and forwards, faster and faster, until she stopped with a slight shudder. She slumped forwards, her forehead touching the ground, her hands disappearing from his sight.

It was after a few ragged breaths when she straightened up again, and her palms were dragged in a circle around her until the ritual ended with both hands brought up to the moon for a last time.

But his eyes were fixed on her face, glistening with sweat, a few strands from her wayward curls lightly blown by the sudden gust of wind that cooled his hot face.

Her eyes were open, and dark, molten green was directed straight at him.

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><p><em>Thank you, Princess Ren and SasuSaku Forever and Ever.<em>


	6. Chapter 6

The still of the night was interrupted by the grating sound of stone against stone. He froze and was about to leap out of the window, when the thought _No_ invaded his mind. He turned around—it was she. The lady, her eyes glimmering like the color of newly cut emeralds, her curls and the top of her cloak glistening with the midnight dew that always came with the last night of the waning moon, as its last slivers of light faded into nothing.

He couldn't move—those eyes were still staring at him, and he knew that she was keeping him there.

She neared, and instead of feeling the alarm he felt earlier he was…comforted. And he began to feel the stirrings in his loins once again, despite the fact that now, he didn't see a patch of her skin aside from her face—not even her neck.

She stepped nearer, and his breathing stuttered.

A pale hand slipped out from beneath the folds of the heavy, brown cloak and reached for his right cheek, caressing it. The slightest touch sent jolts of something throughout his body, and he wondered if this was the power of the lady—to send currents into anyone—_NO_, the thought was fiercely pushed into his mind. It was not the lady's power. Her power was more vast that that; the thought had tinges of amusement.

Her head traveled down to his neck, and stayed there, as she took the lone step that would press their bodies flushed against each other.

He exhaled the breath he never thought he was holding.

Her hand reached up to bury itself into his hair, as her head lifted and her eyes stared straight into his.

It was he who closed the gap between their lips, and initiated the torrent of kisses that he knew had been a long time in coming. Everything was a blur after that, a series of blundering touches and tumbles that ended in an instinctive keening from lips that was muted by another pair.

And the night kept still.

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><p><em>Thank you, Princess Ren.<em>


	7. Chapter 7

In a place as secluded as the temple, there is always a continuing fight against the tedious humdrum of a person's daily routine.

Both of them knew this, and thus welcomed the nightly respite in each other's arms. Once Master Elder turned in for the night, Sasuke would wait. When everything stilled, he would silently steal away from his corner of the room and slip in between the slit that was always provided for him. (He wondered how it happened, when he, who was always the last one out of her room during the evenings, took care to close it firmly, as per Master Apprentice's strict instructions. Nonetheless, he was glad for such, as the noise of sliding stone would make it impossible to sneak in and out of her room.) As always, she was sitting in the edge of her bed, waiting for him. He would go to her, and there was no moment of hesitation as she lifted a hand to cradle his face. He'd lean into her hand, and her face would soften as he lowered his own to hers for a kiss.

For more than a fortnight they had each other's nights, but during the day, after he would once more slip quietly out of her room, they were back to being the Lady and the Temple servant. He would be back to dutifully serving her meals. And nothing more.

As the moon waxed and became closer to being whole, and subsequently waned into the black of the night, he could feel a growing intensity with the way she held him. He wondered why.

Then he remembered that the Lady's ritual always happened during the eve of the night when only a sliver of the moon was left. And he realized that even if it was only him who knew her, it wasn't only him who saw her.

And Master Apprentice was back. The backs of his eyes burned with the realization that there would be another who could, and would, touch her.

That night, there was also a rare intensity in the way he held her.

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><p><em>I am unhappy with how this is going. Hm. Thank you, Princess Ren, haliz, a Guest, SasuSaku Forever and Ever, Monicalia and Asha3. Thank you for the support! (I took too long in this update, didn't I? And I'm not even happy with it.)<em>


	8. Chapter 8

He was demoted to being the watcher, once more. No longer was he the one who picked up the cloak; no longer was he the one who would cover her later. No longer was he the one who solely owned her nights. No longer was he the only one who saw her as she was.

He felt the burning in his eyes once more, as he followed the ascent of her fingers towards the clasp in her cloak-it was taking all of his strength to stop from rushing to her and just take her away from the place that robbed the both of them of their fleeting happiness. Her hand stilled, and in that instant he knew that she knew that he was watching her intently, and that he was seriously entertaining thoughts of whisking her away from here.

Her fingers closed on the clasp holding her cloak together.

He couldn't breathe anymore.

The cloak fell to the floor as she stepped towards the dais, snuffing a candle with her right forefinger, kissing the red spot slightly afterwards. Her eyelids were lowered, and Sasuke knew that he was no longer watching the woman who writhed under him for many, many nights, but the untouchable Lady Oracle.

Only she wasn't.

Or she couldn't?

For as he heard Master Elder start to chant the words that were supposed to start the ritual, lift her off the earth, away from him and up the air that held no space for him, he knew there was something wrong.

She wasn't raising her arms and face to the air, she was just standing there, nary a stitch on her, staring at the three of them, who formed a cluster in a corner of the room.

Master Elder stopped, stared at the Lady, and then slowly, slowly, shifted the blank stare to him. Sasuke.

They knew.

_They knew._

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><p><em>Will edit in a little while. :D THANK YOU, EVERYONE!<em>


	9. Chapter 9

In a flash his arm came up to block the slap that Master Apprentice landed on him, but it wasn't much to shield him from the relentless beating that followed. Master Apprentice had a lot of strength despite his frail countenance. He should have known-that satchel was definitely not light.

"You defiled her! You filthy urchin! We shouldn't have picked you up. Should've known from the start. Shouldn't have believed in that plan for one turn. A woman can't be an oracle if she isn't a virgin. Filthy Uchiha. Filthy devil spawn-"

Uchiha.

_Uchiha._

That name rang a bell-and he was no longer putting up his arms as a shield, for something had dragged Master Apprentice away into a corner, where he hunched over, gasping blood, clutching his open stomach-

Sasike didn't recoil-couldn't, fascinated at the pale Master Apprentice getting even paler. He glanced at the Master Elder, was it him? But no-he couldn't, he was kneeling, his head down, prostrating himself before-the Lady.

Who was the one who attacked Master Apprentice, already dead.

He knew it in every fiber of his being.

Just as he knew that the woman walking towards him wasn't the Lady Oracle. Not anymore.

He stood rooted to the spot as she approached, and, as she had always done before, laid a hand on his cheek.

She was the woman he loved.

She smiled, glad for his thoughts. He was about to lower his head to hers when he heard the most ominous slashing sound. Her body slammed into his, and she was coughing blood into his shirt. Shocked, he looked up to see Master Elder, a triumphant glint in his eyes, holding a ceremonial sword, brandishing it. He laughed, and Sasuke roared, holding her to his body, looking around for a weapon to strike the Master Elder with, who was coming forward for another blow-

The woman in his arms straightened, holding up a hand. She turned to face the elder, not quite limp, despite the trickle of blood in her mouth, and rivulets of it streaming down from the slash in her back.

It was quite enough to stun the two males into not moving.

"I'd like to thank you, Madara, for making it easier for me to step out of this imperfect body." The voice that came out of her mouth was soft, yet held an undercurrent of command, from someone who had apparently been in control for all of her life.

Then the two of them gaped at her, because that was exactly what she did- stepped out of her own skin.

"G-Goddess?"

Goddess?

The woman that materialized looked similar to his own, just that-she was now wrapped in swaths of pristine, white cloth, and had an ephemeral feel about her.

She was beautiful.

She turned to Master Elder, and said, "You should have known that I would've eventually known of this rebellion, Madara."

Master Elder was still gaping at her.

She was just looking at him serenely.

"I know what you did to the Uchihas."

There was that word again, Sasuke thought. Or a name. Apparently it was a name, as the woman uttered it that way. Uchiha.

She was so calm, as she slowly stepped forward and stopped in front of the Master Elder, who had prostrated himself before her once more, groveling, "Goddess, I am so sorry, that was just a temporary lapse of judgment-"

Her laugh was tinkling, soft and sweet as the bells he had once heard coming from a church, when he was still a street urchin. But the faint mocking could still be heard.

"That was indeed a lapse in judgment, but I wouldn't call it temporary. Wouldn't you think so?"

The Master Elder was silent, and remained bowing.

She smiled benignly at the bowed form, and Sasuke couldn't help the fear that was coursing through his spine.

"Thank you for your service, Madara." Then, turning to him, "Follow me, Uchiha Sasuke."

He spared a glance at the lifeless body of the Master Apprentice, and at the unmoving form of the bowing Master Elder. Then he followed her. Out of the room, out of the temple, out of the dark.

Behind him, he could hear the sounds of rock and walls crumbling.

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	10. Chapter 10

It hadn't taken long before they reached their destination:in front of a small waterfall. The woman, who he was sure was not his, but a different one, turned to him, "Go with the girl, Uchiha Sasuke. Her wounds are fully healed by now, and her power returned."

Then she collapsed. He caught her by the waist, and found that when she raised her eyes to look at him, she was _his_ once more.

She smiled at him and lifted a hand to his cheek, but before it could make contact, he took it and kissed the inside of her wrist.

Her smile widened, and she pulled him towards the falls. He was about to open his mouth to ask for explanations when she looked back at him and shook her head. Explanations would be for later.

Then they went through the waterfall.

At the other side was a forest lush with dewy leaves on trees, and golden fruits hanging from them. Birds could be heard chirping, but Sasuke couldn't see any people.

"I see. They want us to talk in private, then."

Sasuke turned to her in shock. She had actually spoken.

She laughed at his expression, and Sasuke couldn't help but compare it to the other woman's laugh; hers was devoid of any undercurrent. Not devious at all.

"Yes, Sasuke, I can speak. But only inside the Weaver."

"The weaver?"

She shook her head, "No, the Weaver." She lifted her face and smiled, and Sasuke had to catch his breath. "You were looking for explanations, right?"

She sat down on a patch of grass and patted the space next to hers. Sasuke followed.

"Perhaps let's begin with who I am. I am the Living Seamstress, the Goddess of the Earth. Who you met earlier was the Seamstress herself."

Sasuke nodded, despite not really knowing what she was saying.

"I was your brother's mate."

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><p><strong><em><em>**_Thank you to everyone who reviewed! If it weren't for you, this fix would have withered away into...nothing. Hah._

_In another note, have I shocked you?! Heh._


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